


Death sentence.

by TheAngryOne



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Almighty Tallest, If You Squint - Freeform, M/M, RaPr, invader zim - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:27:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22594780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAngryOne/pseuds/TheAngryOne
Summary: The Star Chasers- a haphazard 'resistance group'- act on the ingenious plan to cripple the Irken Armada. By targeting their Almighty Tallest.
Relationships: Almighty Tallest Purple/Almighty Tallest Red
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old fic I threw together early in my rapr days. It started as a "let's understand Irkens" fic and became a bit of chaos. You may notice a running theme in my fics...

“This may be our only chance.”   
The reality of their plans settled heavily across the room. It was a tense silence, everyone present sharing in the same dire knowledge that they were planning to go, willingly, against the might of the Irken Empire- with the intent of killing their leaders.

It was not going to be easy.

Writing scrolled across the clunky old screens in their meeting room, the leader- a short, rounded blue-skinned creature with serpentine eyes- tapped the round pads of his stubby fingers against the tablet.

“If this information is to be trusted, this is one of the rare times their  _ Almighty Tallest  _ will be leaving the safety of their ‘Massive’. We’ve got to take this opportunity while we can.

I must thank you again, Abhorrel, for allying with us on this- We wouldn’t have a chance without your people.”   
The creature in particular shrugged her scale-speckled shoulders nonchalantly. “I don’t see the big deal- you supplied the information to us, we simply built the weapon off of what you already knew. I can’t say I understand why you find this so…  _ Dire _ .”

“ _ You don’t? _ ” Throwing his chubby arms up, the small alien exclaimed in terror. “This is the Irken Empire! I can appreciate that their  _ atrocities  _ haven’t reached your part of the galaxy, but even from the information we’d shared you should still have an idea! They’re ruthless and merciless, and if this plan succeeds we could very well save hundreds, if not  _ thousands _ of civilisations from complete eradication.”

“The plan will succeed.” Abhorrel flicked her slick tail around her ankles, radiating arrogance. “We’ll make sure of it.”

\--

A dry gush of air was the first thing to greet them.

It was a shocking contrast to the humidity of their home, it gusted through their robes and kicked sand against their armor with quiet pit-patting. The two leaders exchanged a disgusted look. They only left the Massive for the duties as Tallest, such as inspecting the new Elites or the progress of new weapons. Such duties were always based in familiar territory. In Irken environments.  _ This _ hot dirtball was alien to them, the sort of place they hadn’t visited since they were soldiers themselves.

Duty as leaders had called them here, though. As much as they would have preferred to conduct this meeting over a call from the familiarity of their ship, their company- the Slarms- had demanded it be on neutral territory.

Really, the Empire was just humoring these aliens. They had requested a meeting to discuss an alliance. Irkens needed no allies, their last ones  _ belonged _ to their Empire now, but… The Slarms had very unique weapons that had caught the attention of both the Tallest and the Control Brains.

They refused to discuss anything without being in person, much to the Irkens annoyance.

So now they were here, on this pathetic mission of  _ diplomacy _ . 

They were both crowd-pleasers, but Purple was more suited to this role. He had a quick tongue and was better with big, smart words- Reds social skills were more evident in arguments and that would not be helpful here.

Flanked by guards they descended. Having to disengage their hoverbelts, they stepped onto the soiled metal floor of the landing pad. Purple was already mortified by the dust clinging to his slender black boots. Red was just angry about touching the  _ ground. _

The structures around them were sun-beaten and worn, barely standing against the planets assaulting wind and rattling like rusted wind chimes. Despite the heat, the area was buzzing with movement. This planet served as a neutral trading post, the sort of bazaar where anything can be sold, bought, or taken. It was a little bit… Primitive to the mighty, advanced Irkens, but they were rarely welcome at the more established sanctuaries. 

Most places would demand that they come in unarmed.  _ How stupid _ .

Here, people cowered before the ensemble of heavily armed guards, their leaders strutting with arrogance in the midst of it. Enjoying every moment of the  _ terror _ that their presence brought.

Red produced a holographic tablet from a fold in his armor, tapping quickly on the bright buttons before passing it to his partner. The details of their meeting. He didn’t care for it. He made it clear from the very  _ start _ that he didn’t care for any of this, and was more than willing to palm the job off to his co-leader.

Purple accepted the tablet reluctantly, antenna flicking backwards-despite the wind toying with them- and lilac eyes thinning to a glare. While he agreed that he was the more talented one, and Red was of no use in this situation, he  _ knew _ that Red was intending to sneak away and leave him to sweet talk in solitude.

Unknown to them, figures watched from the higher peaks of the dilapidated structures.

They waited for their time to strike.

\--

He’d left the moment he lost interest.

The laughably short Slarm diplomat had yet to pause for breath, lamenting about how great and advanced their culture is- boring things like art and music and nothing relating to the weapons that had caught their interest in the first place. Giving no explanation, Red turned and went. Exiting the room without a word- Purple was competent enough to salvage the situation, though it was likely he wouldn’t even bother to acknowledge it.

A few loyal guards had flocked to his side as he passed them, accompanying him into the busy streets outside the decrepit parliament building. Dust smothered every space, kicked up by passing travellers and ridden buggies, clinging to the skin, carapaces, scales and slick webbing of the eclectic races. It caught in the fans of Reds pak and caused it to whirr loudly as the mechanisms tried to work around it.

Stalls littered the horizon, peddling all sorts of wares ranging from legal to banned in all quadrants. Red inspected them as he passed, admiring anything particularly pointy or shiny, though it was the food stalls that truly had his interest. A bulky creature with too many eyes saw his gaze and thrust a crispy, sauce smothered morsel on a stick in his direction. Red recoiled with an outraged hiss-  _ meat _ . As tantalising as some of the carmely sauces smelled, meat was one of the things their Pak rejected- evolution not allowing them that indulgence.

He turned away with enough drama to make a point, stalking to a stall that sold various brightly colored, sweet-scented  _ somethings _ in odd sizes and shapes.

Busy trying to identify something crunchy in the mass of sweets, he almost failed to notice the commotion further down the street- it was the shouting of his races name that caught his attention, antenna perking up slightly at the noise-

“-end of the Irken Empire!”

He rolled his eyes.

_ Another _ vigilante group.  _ Another  _ Resisty popping up to inconvenience them for a moment before being wiped from existence. Lithe claws plucked a chosen snack and he turned to face the disturbance with little interest, ignoring the outraged stall holder- who was quickly silenced by the Irken guards.

At the end of the street, posing dramatically with a cloud of dust bordering them, stood a small squadron of random races who all fixed their gaze on the Irken leader. Their armour was adorned with a new crest Red failed to recognise, he brushed it off as another resistance group and munched idly on his snack. Tiny crumbs fell onto his gauntlet and he busied himself with cleaning them off- it wasn’t often he wore his formal armour, and was already a bit upset over the imposing outfit being covered with filthy dirt.

The resistance faltered just noticeably, their dramatic entrance being entirely ignored by their target. Until their leader, a tall, sleek humanoid with small prismatic scales and a pointed face, weaved through them and to the front. She pointed a hooked claw in Reds direction, the Irken raising a non-existent eyebrow at her boldness.

“Your time has come, Irken! You’ll pay for your crimes against the universe, and for the lives your soldiers have ended!”

Red flicked his claws idly with a dismissive noise. The guards at his side sprung to action, charging forwards with weapons drawn. They would make short work of this primitive rabble, armed with no more than basic spears and staves.

A high pitch, screeching sound burst across the streets and all Irken in the vicinity clutched their claws to their antenna. The vibrations reverberated off of the metal buildings, intensifying an already awful noise. The various races present all covered their ears- or relevant appendages- but the insect-like soldiers collapsed in agony. The noise was horribly overwhelming, hitting their antenna like a physical force and echoing inside their skulls. The guards dropped in an instant, clawing madly at their heads in an attempt to smother the sound, and Red fell to his knees soon after, his own claws pressed against the sides of his skull as his antenna laid as tightly as they could go.

Sights around him began to blur and darken as his senses became overwhelmed, he was vaguely aware of movement circling him. He could only manage a scowl, hunching in an attempt to shield himself from the sound-

And something sharp and metal drove into his pak, erupting into sparks. He felt the mechanisms splutter and freeze, felt the cables writhe at the assaulting weapon, and recognised the all-too familiar sensation of life giving fluids spilling from torn pipes. 

A short distance away, the meeting was interrupted by a pained hiss- Purples senses picking up something awful in their vicinity. The guards near him noticed it too, despite their senses not being as evolved as a Tallest. Dread began to mount in Purples ‘spooch and he ignored the Slarms concerned questions. He tapped the screen awake on his gauntlet, locating the icon for his co-ruler and typing a quick message. A demand for his status report. Red was never good at responding to messages, often opting to read them and forget instead, but he’d promised to be more vigilant on their little excursion.

An awful feeling assured Purple that this was more than just his friends laziness.


	2. Chapter 2

Low buzzing was the first thing to come into existence. Red groaned, his body unable to respond to his commands yet, eyes unfocused he tried to make out where he was but all he could see were bright shapes above him. Lights, blurred by his sluggish eyes.  
It was hard to render and Irken unconscious. Their bodies were ill-practiced at recovering from it. For the moment he could do no more than stare groggily as feeling began to come back to the more immediate parts of his body. It was similar to being drugged, limbs heavy and unresponsive.  
Numbly feeling his fingertips working again, he managed to push himself up to sitting- well, more leaning over his arms- and his eyes focused enough to let him finally take in his surroundings.  
It was a clinical, grey-white metal room, brightly lit with fluorescent lights. Above him a vent blew air so icy that it made his antenna quiver on contact, and he meekly tried to move out of its reach. His heeled black boots made contact with the ground but as he shifted his weight, his body dropped. Cursing whatever it was that had knocked him out- this was no state for a mighty leader- he managed to catch himself on the slab he’d risen from, noting two things. One, he’d been dropped on a hard, metal bed. And two- his claws were bound with large round shackles, a neon tube extended between them offering him no more range than the width of his own body.  
He was in a prison.  
Shaking an angry stretch through his body, he extended upright- intending to keep the fearsome composure that came with the title of Almighty Tallest, not commit himself to being some pathetic little prisoner.  
It was perfect timing, as a door to his right opened with a whoosh. In stepped a creature he recognised as the leader from before, a sleek creature who stood at his chest level, her leathery skin a grey-blue color. She resembled one of the creatures from Zims overly-informative documents; a gecko. To his surprise, at her side was another creature he recognised from the defects reports. The indingenous creatures from earth, a human!  
Mentally he noted that he should give the files another read, if they existed this deep into soon-to-be-Irken territory, maybe they deserved more credit than he paid them…  
Or, more likely, it was just chance.  
“Wasn’t sure if you’d wake up again.” The reptilian swayed, moving her weight to the other hip. “They said those fancy back packs of yours were important, you completely flatlined for a while there, I thought you were dead for good.”  
She smirked. “They wanted to make sure of it though, run you through a few more times, ya know? But I’m not in the habit of killing enemies I don’t understand.”  
Reds antenna twithed in involuntary anger- the arrogance of this inferior alien! And the ignorance, too. All Irken paks- especially one belonging to a Tallest- were fast to repair. It would take more than a jab to wipe out technology that powerful.  
Though, he could still feel the aftermath of such a thing happening. Try as he might to hide it, he knew the life-giving Pak was not yet functioning at full capacity.  
Not getting the rise she’d hoped for, the alien pouted and turned to her companion. “All yours, Rhoben.”  
With that she exited, leaving Red alone with the short, squishy inferior human, who watched him with a mix of fear and excitement.  
The moment dragged on, and Reds frustration began to grow.  
“Explain.” He barked, and the human nearly jumped out of his soft skin. Adjusting an archaic pad in his hands sheepishly, the human scrambled to speak.  
“I’m uh, my name is Rhoben, I-”  
“I don’t care. Explain why I am here.”  
“Oh! Uh! Well- The Star Chasers wanted you dead-”  
“I got that.” Red pressed his claws against his forehead, of all the places to be imprisoned… “Star Chasers?”  
Pride swelled in the small humans form and he puffed out his chest, planting his fists on his hips. “We’re the defenders of our universe! Stopping the wicked in their tracks, protecting the innocent, saving th-”  
“That’s stupid.”  
“Wu… Wuh?”  
Red flicked his claws dismissively. “All of that. It’s stupid. And why aren’t I.”  
“Aren’t you… What?”  
“Dead.” He growled, tearing up his earlier mental note- humans were clearly too ignorant to be of any importance.  
“Oh! Uh. Well, I don’t really know. I mean we ‘Star Chasers’ wanted you dead ‘caus that’d throw your entire Empire into chaos but Abhorrel insisted we keep you alive… But that’s okay, I mean, your Empire still has to get by without a leader since you’re here.”  
Red snorted. “You do know there’s two of us, right? Two Tallest?”  
The humans face fell for a moment, his glasses sliding down his nose in shock. “There’s what?”  
“Do you know anything about Irkens, or did you just blindly attack?”  
“... Well…  
We have some intel but…”  
With a tap-tapping he pulled the edge of the battered tablet free and clicked it in place again, averting the taller creatures gaze. “That’s sorta why Abhorrel didn’t let them kill you, she’s huge on gathering info and she’s sent me here to question you.”  
Laughing loudly this time, Red climbed on to the bench behind him and sat, swinging his legs idly. “Yeah. Good luck. Bring me something to eat instead, won’t you, drone?”  
Rhoben glared, he had been expecting resistance but not this level of arrogance. He inched closer, inspecting the imposing alien that sat before him. Even sitting, Red towered over him. His glossy crimson eyes blinked as he watched the human with bored curiosity. Rubbing his chin in thought, Rhoben circled as far as he could around the table, looking at the way the Irken armor interlinked and the variance between hard chitin and cloth. The Pak on his back sported a nasty, raw scar where the blade had pierced it. Though small repairs had been made by its own automatic features, the metal was still bent and gnarled around the wound. He could make out the sight of some mechanisms moving in front of an eerie glow. A mix of neon blue and pink fluids had dried in trails from the open scar.   
Red was ignorant to the inspection, his own eyes focused above him at a round air vent, a few ribbons flicking idly in the heavy gust blowing from it. The air chilled right to his core, his armor and light garments doing little to protect against it. Silently he wished for that vents immediate destruction.  
“What do you eat, anyway?”  
Caught up in his hatred for inanimate things he’d forgotten about the humans presence. Reds antenna perked up at the thoughts of food.  
“Anything, really.” He said genuinely, no aggression in his voice this time. “Donuts are great, or anything sweet- no meat, though. I don’t want meat.”  
The human cocked an eyebrow. “Why not meat?”  
Red blinked, ignoring the question. “Do you have chips?”  
Accepting defeat, the squishy pink creature shrugged and promised to check. He left the room swiftly, pausing as the door closed behind him to fiddle with the thermostat on the wall.

\--

“I don’t care if you can’t! You’re going to do it anyway!”   
The gathering of Irkens all collectively cowered, retreating to the walls of their ship as they watched the assault on their equal. Purples claws jabbed at the drones chest, a fury in his eyes like none had seen in his time ruling.  
“Sir!” The drone pleaded, hands held high in a submissive gesture. “Even if we could safely reroute enough power to boost the scanner to that level, it won’t help us. The signal from his Pak is being masked by a jammer, we have no hope of locating it without first stopping what has it hidden.”  
No hope. Purple scowled. “Then get soldiers back on that pathetic planet and get them to find that jammer on foot. The Massive doesn’t move until I say so!”  
The drone nodded furiously and scuttled away, nearly tripping over himself in fear.  
A holographic map of the area was projected across the main chamber of the Massive,and Purple scanned it for any information- any hints, an escape route, a passage, a suspect doorway. Anywhere they could have gone.  
He’d left the meeting shortly after the commotion, sensing something was wrong. He’d arrived at the tail end of it all, finding Irken guards scattered around the street and no sign of Red. The idiot, he’d cursed with a mix of dread and anger. The guards brought no light to the situation, one had perished, a few were too slow to recover and the remainder simply knew nothing. They were already en route to meet the Control Brains for their failure and, as much as Purple wanted to see them punished, he’d lost Red.  
He swallowed nervously, drumming his claws against his chin. He had to keep thoughts like that at bay- Though Reds Pak had disappeared from their scans, it didn’t mean he was gone. Even not functioning, the Paks unique ID would still be visible. No, wherever he was, they were making quite an effort to hide him.  
And whoever it were- he knew that once reunited, the Tallest would delight in slowly removing them from existence. Piece by agonising piece.  
The fear was there, though.  
The fear that they would not be reunited. That Purple would be left to rule the Empire alone. He dreaded that idea; for starters he often liked to give Red the work meant for him. In exchange, Purple kept the people appeased as he was far more entertaining. They both complimented each others skills. But not just that- Red was the closest companion he had, they rarely spend time apart and when they did… Purple simply didn’t know what to do. He was incomplete without his partner.  
And he was afraid of existing that way.

\--

Rhoben carried a tray with an assortment of snacks balanced on it, ranging from sweet to savoury, crunchy to squishy- unsure of what the warlord might enjoy he’d just grabbed an eclectic mix. He had to hold the teetering tray precariously on one hand as he used the other to unlock the autodoor, his skin prickling as the cold air burst from inside.  
“Snacks!” He announced proudly, brandishing his tray of spoils. The Irken did not share his excitement- long thin arms wrapped around his knees, head resting on his gauntlets, he glared from his perch on the cold bench. His eyes had lost a bit of their piercing lustre.  
The human felt goosebumps forming on his arms, the room felt more like a walk-in-fridge than a quarters. “Oh boy, it sure is cold in here.”  
Red made a low noise in acknowledgement, narrowing his eyes.  
“I take it you Irkens don’t like cold? Abhorrel is the same, you know- cold blooded. Always has to have it warm.”  
“No.” Red admitted, after a pause. Rhoben gave himself a mental pat on the back- his little plan had worked, and though it seemed inconsequential, knowing something like temperature could prove to be valuable. They’d already had a victory from knowing of Irkens advanced senses. Their prisoner was proof. “Irkens are also cold blooded, we like the warmth. It’s cold in here. Do you humans live like this?”  
“Some do.” He admitted. “We adapt easily.”  
“So do Irkens, but I’d prefer to be warm.”  
Setting the tray at Reds boots, Rhoben busied himself with the thermostat again. He wasn’t really the sort for this work, feeling a little bit guilty for causing the bug discomfort. He returned to see Red picking idly at the snacks with his claws. The movement was sluggish, and he seemed to have little interest in the platter.  
“What’s the matter?” Rhoben inquired genuinely.  
“These snacks are bad.” Was the flat response. Though he could tell Red reply was not genuine. Who’d make such a big deal about snacks, anyway?  
“If you’re cold, I’ve fixed it now.”  
The sincerity went unnoticed as Red moved the food around the tray. Truly, he was distracted with thoughts of his co-ruler. He’d known Purple was safe, the meeting was held in a heavily fortified building and this rag-tag crew of ‘Star Chasers’ were not equipped well enough to tackle that. It was truly an insult that these inferior creatures had managed to snare one of their Tallest.  
“I have a question.” Red turned to the human, ordering more than asking. “What was that weapon they used, earlier?”  
“To catch you?” Crimson eyes narrowed. “Abhorrel built it. We gave them our intel on Irkens and she noticed that you guys had keen senses- she had the idea to make something so loud it’d be too much for you to process. I’ve seen similar things work on Earth creatures before, it’s actually quite effective.”  
Red made a disgusted face- he did not like being compared to an Earth creature, not at all. He had to give that sly, gecko-woman some credit though. Crafty weapons were not often considered by Irkens, they preferred instead to use something more direct. He hated to admit it but it was actually quite clever…  
With an airy noise the auto-door lifted open, Red and Rhoben both staring quizzically as a hulking creature entered. The newcomer eyed Red with a challenging look.  
“Darn, you did pull through. I was looking forward to dissecting you. You know, you look bigger when you’re awake.”  
Planting his boots on the ground, Red agreed as he looked down on the alien. But to his dismay he found the hulking, spiked creature stood only a foot or so shorter than himself. To be so close in height was an insult. Judging by the fire in the two sets of eyes staring back, the newcomer knew it too.  
“Hey Dormha.” Rhobens perky voice cut between them. “What are you doing here?”  
“Checking in.” Dormha growled, not breaking her staring-contest with the Irken. “I hate these bugs and I was really hoping he’d be dead.”  
“Sorry to disappoint.” Red quipped back, a smirk playing on his lips. “I’ll try harder when I get out, just for you.”  
The crimson-skinned alien bellowed. “When you get out? Ha! Once Rhobens little science project is over i’ll be killing you myself, bug. It’s what you deserve.”  
“Oh. I know what this is. Let me guess- your house was blown up by a Viral Tank? Someone important had their throats slit by one of my guards? Your precious little pet was scared off by an invader? Which one was it, inferior?”  
“More like my entire planet was destroyed by your stupid Massive! You pushed us to the brink of extinction with your… Organic sweeps. Our entire guild is formed by people like me and you think you’re just going to get out?”  
“Certain of it.”  
Dormha growled angrily, Red brought his claws to his chin in genuine thought. “Hm.. I’ve blown up so many now- Which planet was yours?”  
With a primal snarl the beast lunged forwards- slamming Red against the metal wall. Rhoben squealed and pleaded but was entirely ignored. Irken claws made short work of the flesh they met, tearing long grizzly lines through clothes and into the skin beneath- shredding soft, fleshy areas of Dormhas torso quickly and blood and sinew spilled forth. Undeterred, she wrenched the chains on his arms away, pinning them against the wall with one hand, with the other she grabbed the Irkens thin neck and squeezed.  
Red hadn’t brawled since he was an Elite. Though he had been quite talented, he was ill-adjusted to fighting now, through all the surgeries and extreme measures taken for him to resemble a traditional Tallest he’d become a little bit… Unfamiliar with his body. One thing he was sure of, though, was that he was extremely out-classed in terms of strength. This mass of muscle and brawn that had his carapace cracking against the wall was not one he could simply throw.  
He opted instead to call on something primal, hissing in anger he sank his fangs into the area of the appendage he could reach beneath his chin- feeling the unfamiliar, exhausting sensation of his venom being discharged.  
She felt it too. Feeling as hot iron straight into a wound, Irken venom burned like a snakebite. She ripped her hand away and cried in agony, squeezing the appendage as black trails appeared in the veins around the wound.   
Red slumped and tried to suck in a breath. The assault left him dizzy, and the use of venom left him tired. It was a primitive technique, rarely used now aside from the most dire situations as it took a lot of energy to recover from. Using the wall as a support, he made his way to the bench and rounded up whichever snacks seemed most appealing- squeezing a jelly-like ball in his claws, watching the soft candy points extend under his ministrations as Rhoben aided his suffering ally out of the room.


	3. Chapter 3

“Please, I assure you! Uh… Mr… Sir… Tallest. We truly had no part in any of this. It was never our intent-”  
“Shut up!” Purple snapped, the image of the fluffy creature recoiled, round claws grabbing at his horns in fear. Try as they might, the Slarms couldn’t escape the Irkens accusations. “You insisted we meet in person. You picked the planet. You had a suspicious amount to do with this.”  
“Really, we never meant for anything to go wrong. We just wanted to meet somewhere neutral-”  
“Well things did go wrong, and I’ve only got you to blame.”  
Somewhere off-screen of the transmission, a little voice commented ‘or yourselves’ with an unimpressed tone. The grey Slarm scurried to silence the voice, but the warlord had already heard the comment.  
“Bring up the coordinates of the Slarm homeworld.” He barked to a drone nearby, who nodded and hastily complied. The drone was just as eager to blow up this inferior race for their transgressions. All of the Irkens were. Losing one of their Tallest was no small offence, and they had all become a bit more savage in response. The drones in the Massive worked tirelessly to find what information they could, the soldiers on the planet's surface had begun to assault anything that they encountered- and Purple himself had a far shorter fuse than usual. Which was nearly unthinkable for he was already quick to anger.  
A hologram blipped into existence next to Purple, a small round image of a planet. The Slarm on screen paled noticeably beneath his fur. Irken claws prodded the planet with little interest, scanning the information on the gui. The Slarm homeworld was woefully undefended and would pose no challenge for the Massive, destroying it would be a quick and satisfying task.  
“Wait!” The furry diplomat exclaimed, his short claws hitting the camera in front of him in desperation. “Please! We’re trying to help you here, we’ve got our own soldiers searching- We really didn’t mean anything bad when we arranged this meeting. We, uh, heard rumors before the date but-”  
“Rumors?” Glossy lilac eyes narrowed to a glare, his attention on the transmission again. “What rumors?”  
Tapping his stubby claws together, the Slarm was suddenly sheepish- like a child being scolded by a parent. “Well… We intercepted a few messages, there was a group tracking the movement of the Massive and your Armarda... We didn’t think it was important at all, but they started to contact mercenaries from the Albarga quadrant. We encountered some of them before the meeting. They… May have asked about you…”  
Purple clenched his claws- so this was a plan that had been in the works for a while. Someone had targetted them, and these stupid fluffy critters had confirmed that the Tallest would be present. He faced a drone and motioned his claws across his own neck- panic crossed the Slarms face as the transmission was cut.  
Irkens watched expectantly as their leader stood in silent thought. Worry and anger urged him to do something, but self preservation told him to stay aboard the Massive- as much as he’d like to be on the planet too, searching for his friend, tearing aliens to shreds with his claws and frightening the lesser ones with the imposing formal armor he still wore, he knew he was a target as well. The Empire still had one ruler, it would still function. Truly, it would function without either of them- the Control brains managing most of the more important, complicated workings of their race- but to lose both Tallest would be a dire blow. They were the image for the soldiers. Their leaders. If they were both to disappear, or die… The Empire would surely reel until someone knew ascended.  
And the thought of someone taking his throne made Purple growl. No, he had to continue his search from the Massive.  
A loud tone rang from the display ahead- a wandering Slarm ship leaving the fleet and coming into proximity of the Massive. Purple motioned his claws in the direction of the vessel, suspended in space ahead of them, and the drones complied.  
Bright, pink light pulsed from the Massive, and the small ship exploded into an array of fire and metal.

\--

Unwanted memories played through his head, having been in a situation like this before he found himself reflecting. Slumped against the wall, shackled hands in his lap and feeling entirely exhausted, he tried to stir. He’d been captured a countless amount of times as an Elite, Purple always liked to give him grief for it no matter how much Red played the stories down- he’d admit, he was a bit too direct and bold and often got himself into trouble. Though as an Elite- an Irken soldier- he was met with very different treatment to his current imprisonment. Red urged his Pak to dismiss the memories of blows and beatings, cuts and wounds he’d been subjected to by his past vengeful captors. Here, his ‘jailors’ seemed to be far more lenient. Whether it was from fear or respect of his status, he didn’t really care.  
A tap on his gauntlet woke the sleeping screen, he growled in frustration as it displayed the same information as before. Irken doom, glitched and broken, flickered on and off across the hologram. No signal.   
He stood shakily, still tired as his body focused on replenishing his spent venom- his Pak not programmed to offer such a service- and he traced his hands along the walls. Smooth metal panels made up the structure, judging by the dust and grime in the corners this prison seldom saw use. There were no openings in the seams, and the only vents were set into the roof, above his head- reachable with his Pak legs, but the space was too narrow for even a body as slender as his.  
Blocky, square buttons were set into the wall beside the door, a primitive keypad. Held in place with nothing more than a screw on each corner it was trivial to remove, his thin claws slipping behind the metal face and tearing it free with little resistance.  
A circuit and a nest of cables lived behind it. Once, he’d been the best of them all with hardware like this, able to reroute and reprogram enemy technology with his eyes closed. The skills had seen little use as his time relaxing as a pampered leader.  
He willed his Pak to find the information for him, fans whirring as it dug through the relevant files of its software. Thin fingers moved cables, snipped and bent, ripped and replaced until the door shot open.  
Crossing his arms behind his back he strode out- and nearly walked over a familiar human.  
“Woah!” Rhoben looked at him with surprise, then his eyes bulged in realisation. “Hey! Wait! You-you can’t-”  
“Can’t what” He growled, using his imposing height to look down on the soft, cowering creature. Rhoben failed to respond, choosing to blubber in a pathetic manner.  
Instead a reply was shouted from down the corridor, both looking to see Dorhma fixing them with a fierce glare. Her four eyes sunken, breath feverish and arm a sickly color- her fury burned in Reds direction.  
Without hesitation he summoned his Pak legs and lunged forwards. With the aid of the metal appendages he towered over the ill creature beneath, until a tremor rocked through one leg and he nearly lost balance- looking down to see the tip of the limb in question sparking, a smooth cut where it had been and the point separated and abandoned a few feet away.  
Abhorrel crouched beside Dohrma, her lithe tail flicking, a blade extended in one hand and a small item in the other.  
“Where do you think you’re going, prisoner.  
You may recognise this-” She used the blade to gesture to the item in her hand, a small diamond-shaped orb with three flat, curved metal spikes jutting from either side. Tiny eye-like shapes stared from the tip of it. Crimson eyes maintained their glare, he did not recognise the device but he had a strong suspicion of what it was, and having no desire to experience it again his mind was silently going through plans.  
“-Or maybe I ought to jog your memory? No, I’ll spare you that- what’s going to happen is you’re going to return to your cell, or i’ll put you in agony again, got it?”  
“Just do it” Dohrma croaked. “Don’t even bother asking, just make him suffer.”  
“Uhm, I have a question.” Rhoben extended his hand, stepping through the Pak legs so he stood in the middle of the group. “Tallest is that Irken bite, stuff, lethal?”  
There was a moment of silence as they all considered their next move- Red unsure whether to answer, Abhorrel debating over allowing him to, and Dormah not really certain she wanted to hear it.  
“Well?” The serpentine alien was the first to break the pause. “You better answer, if I turn this on in a space this confined it’ll be so amplified your skull will probably burst-”  
“Do it!” Dormah laughed, cut short by a breathy wheeze.  
“A normal Irkens? No, it’s a paralysis. A Tallest?”  
Red smirked.  
“You’re dead.”  
“You’ll be helping us to make an antidote, then.” Abhorrel turned to her sickly companion. “Do you still feel well enough to engineer one? If we can get a sa-”  
Metal spikes shot forwards, embedding into the ground where the serpentine creature had been crouched. Red had taken her moment of distraction as his opportunity to thrust his Pak legs through her- but she was too quick, leaping away in the blink of an eye. A sound erupted in the same moment. High pitch and squealing- She had been right, it was far worse in the small space of the metal corridor, and the supporting Pak legs faltered.   
Red clawed at his antenna and cried out in agony- the metal legs shaking and collapsing as he fell, hunching over in an attempt to drown out that awful piercing noise. He felt a large fat hand slam against his Pak and force him down, the sound slowly quieting until it stopped but the effects remained- his vision spangled with outlines ghosting behind every moving form and a ringing in his head.  
Dormah pulled him to his feet, but he couldn’t stand. Abhorrel brought her face before his and blinked her two-sets of eyelids, returning the device to her belt as she smiled.

\--

Fingers ghosting across his limbs prompted him to stir. Figures- he rarely got to indulge in the luxury of sleep and whenever he got the chance to, his co-ruler got bored. He’d start to bother him until he woke, touching and prodding, digging in his thin claws as he grew impatient.  
Red attempted to swat his partners hands away- except his own hands wouldn’t rise. Eyes snapping open, he was quickly reminded that he was not aboard the massive enjoying an afternoon nap with Purple bothering him, he was instead sprawled across a bench, his wrists bound to the surface below, and two bodies leering down at him.  
Fear rose for a moment before he suppressed it again. He’d been in this situation before, but he was always the one standing over the victim- watching with keen intent as the drones obeying him would explore with barbaric purpose. Dissecting the alien that had been unlucky enough to be captured. He’d watch with morbid curiosity and had been known to even involve his own claws…  
Yes, he knew this situation well.   
Thankfully it seemed as though his captors exploration had only gone as far as a few shallow cuts, the worst of which trailing from beneath his eye to his mouth. A pink, segmented tongue flicked over the wound. He felt his Pak beneath his spine, resting strangely.  
“You’re awake!” Rhoben exclaimed, a little too loudly. Red grimaced. “Just in time, too, she was getting impatient- I was running out of ways to distract her.”  
He motioned to the hulking creature on Reds opposite side. Darhma leered at him with sunken, glossy eyes, dark bags forming under them. Her skin had lost its orange lustre and was damp with a feverish sweat.   
“You’re lucky… I was going to start pulling teeth out.”  
Unconsciously he ran his tongue over the back of his teeth. He didn’t like the sound of that.  
“But now that you’re awake I guess we can do this the easy way. Boring.”  
“The safe way.” Rhoben added, his tone was correcting but no one in the room took him seriously enough to comply. “We need a sample of your venom so we can make an antidote. Can you uh, make more for us?”  
“No.” Was the dry response.  
Dohrma slammed one of her thick, stumpy fists on the bench- narrowly missing Reds head, he winced as the sound vibrated through the metal and rattled in his antenna.  
“What do you mean no? You’re going to give us that venom or I’m going to squeeze it out of your stupid head-”  
“I mean-” Crimson eyes narrowed, this brute wouldn’t even give him the chance to explain before she got violent… “I don’t even know if I have more. Irkens don’t use their venom often and it takes a long time to replenish. There’s a good chance that I don’t have any.”  
“Then make more! I don’t… Feel so good…”  
Frowning at his friends admission, Rhoben fixed Red with a pleading gaze- “Can we slow the poison down at all, give her more time until you can?”  
Slow it down? That was something he’d never even given thought to. Truthfully, he knew very little about their venom- not much was taught to them as it was such a taxing thing to utilise, rarely being of any help to soldiers. He himself had only injected it probably three times in his long-life, at most. He inspected the bitemark, a familiar ring of punctures sunk into the flesh. The wounds were black, the blood thickened to look like tar and the veins around it the same sickly color, resembling a shadowy web beneath the grey skin.  
“Cut the arm off.” He said, matter of factly.  
Both aliens went pale.  
“What?!”  
“It’s dead, the venom is already in your system but that nasty thing won’t be helping. Get rid of it.”  
“It’s my arm, you barbaric…! Ugh!” With a clutter of metal and glass, the invalid creature pawed through items on a bench. Discarded pieces fell to the ground to bounce or smashed, unnoticed as she searched. The other two watched in awkward silence until she finally produced a small glass beaker and thrust it to the imprisoned Irken. “Venom. Now.”  
To say he looked unimpressed was an understatement- Red paid no attention to the beaker, watching Dohrma pant and wheeze as she glared down at him, desperation in her four eyes.  
“Look, can you just do it for us? Please? The sooner you do, the sooner we can get out of this… Creepy place.” Rhoben shuddered, casting his gaze around the room at the various pointy, savage looking instruments adorning the interior. His pleading eyes settled on Red quickly, who rolled his own crimson orbs.  
“What part of no don’t you inferiors get?”  
Metal clanged as Dohrma slammed her hand on a tray nearby, wrapping her large fingers around the first sharp object she could find and she lunged at their prisoner. The small human barely reacted quick enough to intercept- wrapping his thin arms around her meaty one and dangling off of the appendage. Red had a chance, while the two wrestled against each other- he willed his Pak legs to cut the shackles holding him place, but a loud whirr was the only thing produced. Fury rising, he realised why his Pak felt so strange- he hadn’t been able to retract the legs earlier, and his captors had so kindly hacked the limbs off at their base. With a hiss of anger he pulled against his constraints, the thin neon loops catching on the peaks of his armor.  
The commotion settled quickly as Dohrma stumbled backwards against the counter, propping herself up with the working arm. Thick, black liquid trickled down her face as she coughed madly. Rhobens hands extended towards her- but she smacked them away and stormed to the door, exiting without looking back.  
The spectacle held little interest for Red, crimson eyes blinking as he paused his struggle. With one hard pull he wrenched his right hand free of the bindings and sat up, extending his two claws and closing them again then glaring at the squishy biped ahead of him. The human squeaked.  
“Dohrma come ba-! Uh… I’m not really much of a fighter, you know..”  
“Oh, I know.”  
“Can, er, we talk before you maul me to death?”  
Raising a ghost brow, Red paused. Talk? What did this inferior mean by talk? “About what?”  
“Well- er, her.” He gestured his pink fingers at the door his friend had exited through. He sighed and fidgeted with the collar of his shirt.   
“She was already stressed. She just had a baby, you know-”  
Red rolled his eyes.  
“-Her husband told her not to join this mission but she wanted to fight the Irkens. He said she’d get killed and I uh.. Guess he was right.”  
“Get to the point.” The ruler barked.  
“The point is- she’s got people waiting for her to come home.”  
“And?”  
Rhoben looked sadly over his round glasses, willing as much emotion as he could into his voice- surely there was someway to sway this cold-hearted alien.  
“Don’t you have someone waiting for you?”  
He faltered. His antenna flicked back as though something loud had hit them, eyes widening ever so slightly- it was a momentary drop, but he quickly regained his composure. Pretending that he wasn’t thinking of his friend, alone on their ship.  
“No. Irkens don’t need anyone.”  
Cocking a brow, Rhoben had clearly caught on- “No one? No family?”  
“We don’t have families, like you inferiors.”  
“Children?”   
“Irken are created as adults.”  
“Partner?”  
That raw feeling struck him again and Red scowled. “No one. This won’t work, I can’t sympathise with that pathetic thing. Doesn’t matter to me if she dies.”  
“It matters to me!” Taking a few strides around the bench, Rhoben pouted. He looked at the remaining shackle in conflict, the pink band had looped into a spike of the gauntlet and was thoroughly wedged. Against his better judgement he tapped a few keys beneath the bench and the neon loop suddenly went slack. Red flicked it free from his gauntlet and rubbed the limb as he willed feeling back into it.   
“What do I have to do for you to help her?”  
Red paused to consider.  
“Firstly-” He spoke with bitterness, promising terrible things if this pink creature failed to listen. “-You tell me why I can’t connect to the Empire. My Pak has no signal.”  
“Er- well. We try to stay hidden at the best of times. With a Tallest in the base we stepped it up a bit… There’s a network of jammers and scramblers that stop anything from being broadcast in or out.”  
Figures.  
“Fine. Get me connected.” He tapped the gauntlet to wake it, the screen blipping into existence and displaying the same glitchy, dancing text as before. “Long enough to send a message.”  
“What?! But-”   
“Don’t, and your friend dies.”  
Bowing his head in thought, Rhoben weighed the two choices. On one hand, Dorhma dies- but the Tallest remains their prisoner, and the Star Chasers have a chance at harming the Empire. On the other, Dohrma lives, but the Irken leader is free to contact whomever he desires…  
Taking the beaker in hand again, he held out in front of him.  
“Alright. You save her, and I’ll help you get a message out. But don’t tell anyone! Ever! When this is in the history logs I don’t want to be known as the human who helped out Almighty Tallest… Uh… What would they all you?”  
Grasping the beaker in his claws, he rose to standing and inspected the glass container closely.  
“Red.”


End file.
